As playoff time draws closer in the NFL, there are all kinds of stories out there, as usual, to stimulate conversation around water coolers. What are the chances of Peyton Manning playing a February football game in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome wearing a Denver Broncos uniform?

Archie Manning said Peyton Manning worked hard in the offseason, like here with his brother Eli at the Manning Passing Academy this past summer.Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

I asked the father of the Denver quarterback if he thought his son would be quarterbacking a team with a 9-3 record, a team on a seven-game winning streak, at this stage of the season?

"Records never came to my mind,'' said Archie Manning. "When I think of Peyton, I only think of hard work, of trying to get better. I think of the seven trips he made to Duke University during the off-season to work with Dave Cutcliffe, who coached him at Tennessee. Hard work and Peyton have been lifetime soul mates.''

Peyton's second life as an NFL quarterback began with two chapters, "ecstasy'' followed by "agony."

Manning threw for 253 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-19 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers with no interceptions.

"It was a game I'll never forget,'' Archie said. "And it was strange not seeing Peyton without a horseshoe on his jersey.''

A week later, in a 27-21 loss to Atlanta, Peyton played like a quarterback trying to shake off rust after undergoing four neck surgeries. Of his first eight passes, four were caught by the Broncos, three by the Falcons. It was 20-0 in the second quarter, 27-7 midway through the third.

Was Peyton pressing?

"When I see the film,'' he said, "I'm sure I'll see someone open on a check-down. I'll learn from it. I made bad decisions.''

He'd learn more when Denver lost two of its next three. And he'll tell you he's still learning during a winning streak that left his stats through nine games at 29 touchdowns, nine interceptions and a completion percentage of 68.0.

John Elway, the Broncos' president of football operations, said Peyton, at age 36, is learning a second language that has the Broncos blending their old power formations with some of the spread formations he ran in Indianapolis.

"Peyton has always been the cerebral guy,'' Elway said. "It's the way he plays the game, and takes advantage of everything on the cerebral side. A lot of it is like riding a bike for him, plus putting in new, different things he can do because he loves the mental warfare that goes on in the game.''

Elway realized he was taking a physical risk in his hot pursuit of a four-time MVP.

"Knowing what kind of a guy he was, that's what gave me so much confidence,'' Elway said. "Any time you challenge a guy like Peyton, you know he's going to succeed, because he has that willpower and the will to work. It still surprises me he was released by the Colts, but I understand. It put a chip on Peyton's shoulder. Not that he needed to work any harder, but he wanted to prove it wasn't the right move. Whenever you challenge a guy with Peyton's ability and work ethic, you're going to see good things come out of it.''

As old-man quarterback Archie Manning looks back on this season, two memories will burn. He'll remember a son giving it his best to win another Super Bowl and he'll remember being blown away by the talent of newly minted triggermen like Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III, and Andrew Luck.

"The game changes,'' Archie said. "All you have to do it look at what Cam did last year and at the start Griffin has made, what Luck has done. There will always be a transition in how quarterback is played in the NFL. It's a faster, definitely more complex game than it was in my day. That makes it tougher on them, but they're better prepared for it because they see a lot of the same things in college that they see in the NFL.''

Archie feels the arms entering the NFL today are arms that have been tutored in the wide-open offenses being used at the college and high school level.

"Guys like Griffin and Newton and Luck are making quick transitions. I've had a football camp for 17 years and, from what I've seen, the group over the last four or five years has been better than they were 10-15 years ago. Kids today are not only throwing the ball more, they're throwing it better.''